East Harlem community tries to decide how to move forward after explosion

N.J. Burkett reports from East Harlem.

March 17, 2014 3:28:21 PM PDT

Eyewitness News

EAST HARLEM --

East Harlem residents will undoubtedly be re-living Wednesday's explosion for some time. On Saturday, there was a community meeting to address what the city might do about that.

The meeting was sparsely attended, but organizers are trying to pull together a list of residents for a potential class action lawsuit against the city and Con Edison.

In the meantime, a new Red Cross service center was set up along Park Avenue near East 113th Street.

"The Red Cross has connected with 14 families and several of those families are new," said Michael de Vulpillieres.

Mayor de Blasio insisted that 20 units of housing have been set aside for those who were permanently displaced from the blast.

"We hope the surrounding buildings, that it's just a question of time, getting people back in days or weeks," said Mayor de Blasio, "and that in fact all those units in the other surrounding buildings can be brought up to code, and people can get back in."